2013-12-10

"...South Africa's governing party admitted today that it used torture,
executions, and land mines during its fight against apartheid, opening a
new chapter in this country's efforts to come to terms with its past.

Senior
officials of the African National Congress also said they could have
done far more to stop the gruesome practice in the black townships of
''necklacing'' people suspected of cooperating with the South African
security forces. Such people were pinned inside a car tire, doused in
gasoline, set on fire and left to die.

Party officials had long
resisted appearing before the commission, saying their actions were
excusable because they had been fighting a ''just war.'' Today's
testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission represented a
major step toward holding the winners in the struggle against the white
apartheid Government accountable for their share of atrocities...."

"...Last year Archbishop Tutu told President Mandela that he would resign
unless A.N.C. members recognized that they had committed gross
violations of human rights and needed to apply for amnesty.

The
Congress appeared before the commission last August, but at that time it
made only a formal written submission. This time, the party also
submitted another 139 pages of written testimony before answering
questions. The testimony includes 33 pages of responses and requests for
elaboration by the Truth Commission, including more details on deaths
at the Congress's bases in Angola, the use of land mines in border areas
and details about 15 Congress members who were executed for spying and
mutiny.In submitting testimony to the commission, the Congress
said it would take responsibility for 500 bombings over 11 years, and
perhaps for another 95, but it could not be sure of the precise number...."

Mandela knew of the atrocities.

No one is perfect. Which is why we should always be careful how much praise a man.

So by all means, raise a statue. Gloss over the ugly parts. You'll do so knowing full well innocent people paid a price.

"....kiss my ass..." Former Attorney General of Alabama Bill Baxley, responding to a KKK hate letter during his famous 1976 prosecution of Robert Chambliss for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings in 1963.

We possess all this information and little wisdom. In other words, the smarter we get the dumber we are. -The Commentator

Half-truths used to make you popular. Today,
quarter-truths make you famous. -The Commentator

I'm stuck in every era...except my own. -The Commentator

If they really are so great, tell me why can't they at least take this place and take it straight? Why always stoned, like Hippie Johnny? -"I'm straight" by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers

True grace and class is when criticism is met with a "thanks". -The Commentator

The reality is that people become managers because they were simply the next available person. -The Commentator

When mediocrity complains it gets a bonus. When it yells it gets promoted. -The Commentator

The heart has its reasons which reason does not know. -Blaise Pascal

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison

My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves and the quality of their knowledge too seriously and those who don’t have the guts to sometimes say: 'I don’t know.... -Nassim Taleb

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -Bertrand Russell

The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it. -Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed. -Francesco Guicciardini

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident. -Francesco Guicciardini

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. -Seneca

If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. -Thomas S. Szasz

I love you guys. -Coach Norman Dale, Hoosiers

Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge. -Francesco Guicciardini

Without writing and wine there is no civilization. -The Commentator

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. -Tacitus

I have a dream...
-Martin Luther King

What, to eternity, is a thousand years? Not so much as the blinking of an eye to the turning of the slowest of the spheres.
-Dante Alighieri

The Iron Curtain is no more than the ideology of political correctness has erected a metal fence against the human spirit. -The Commentator

All truths passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. -Arthur Schopenhauer

To know nothing and be able to express it. -Karl Kraus

It may be that Western culture will indeed go: The lack of conviction of many of those who should be its defenders and the passionate intensity of it's accusers may well join to complete it's destruction. But if it does go, the men and women of all the continents will thereby be impoverished and endangered. -Bernard Lewis

People's political perceptions are directly inverted to the reality. -The Commentator

The only simplicity to be trusted is the simplicity to be found on the far side of complexity. The only joy to be trusted is the joy on the far side of a broken heart; the only life to be trusted is the life on the far side of death. -Alfred North Whitehead

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
-Dante Alighieri

You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.
-Homer Simpson

In order to spend on one side, Nature is forced to economize on the other.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe